Original Article
BackgroundI don't believe that I need to introduce myself, but if I do my name is P3Droid. I am a phone enthusiast and have been working in the Android platform for 17 months. I have been very lucky in my short time on the Android platform. I think more than anything I have been lucky enough to be in the right places at the right times. The day I first saw and played with the Droid (OG) I thought “that is the ugliest damn phone I've ever played with”. Then I was asked back into the store by my friend (nameless) to get some time with the Android platform and he began to explain to me how open the phone was and how a “smart” person could do anything they wanted to the phone. That turned what I thought was an ugly phone into the sexiest beast ever. I guess that was approximately October of 2009, and I was excited about the possibilities and dove right in without checking the depth of the water.
I spent much of the year on an open phone and an open platform, and sometime in July I picked up a Droid X. I soon found a great bunch of friends and we formed Team Black Hat. Really wanting to break the bootloader, we spent more hours working on it than we did our 9 – 5 jobs. Eventually we came to the conclusion (with help from some unique resources), that we were not going to accomplish our objective. Every so often we still pluck away at it, but we have moved on to other things that will help people enjoy their Droid phones.
Fast forward to October 2010. I'm still in love with the concept of android, and I've done more than my share of developing, themeing, creating ROMS and even hacking. *Having been involved in so many things and having developed some unique contacts, I have been privy to information that is not disseminated to the masses. Some of this information I was asked to sit on. Some information I sat on because I felt it was best to do so for our entire community. You have probably seen me rant on occasion about what I thought the community was doing wrong and causing itself future pain. Each of those days I had received even more disheartening information. So where does this leave me? It leaves me with a difficult choice to make. What to tell, how much to tell, and do I want to give information out that could possible be slightly wrong. I've worked very hard to verify things through multiple sources, when possible, and some other information comes from sources so reliable that I take them at their word.
This brings me up to today. I've tossed and turned regarding how to say this, and how to express all of the information and my feelings in regards to this information. I guess the solution is to just let you all decide for yourselves what you think and what you want to do.
One Shoe Falls
Beginning in July, we (TBH), began hearing things about Motorola working on ways to make rooting the device more difficult. This was going to be done via Google through the kernel. No big deal we thought, the community always finds a way. When Froyo was released and there was no root for some time we became a bit concerned but soon there was a process and even 1-clicks. This was good news and bad news to me, because it simply meant that they would go back to the drawing board and improve upon what they had done.
During this time there were still little rumors here and there about security of devices, and other such things but nothing solid and concrete. Until November.
The Other Shoe Falls
Beginning in October, the information began coming in faster and it had more of a dire ring to it. It was also coming in from multiple sources. I began to rant a little at the state of our community, and that we were the cause of our own woes. So what did I hear?
1. New devices would present challenges for the community that would most likely be insurmountable, and that Motorola specifically – would be impossible to hack the bootloader. Considering we never hacked the previous 3G phones, this was less than encouraging.
2.Locked bootloaders, and phones were not a Motorola-only issue, that the major manufacturers and carriers had agreed this was the best course of action.(see new HTC devices)
3. The driving forces for device lock down was theft of service by rooted users, the return of non-defective devices due to consumer fraud, and the use of non-approved firmware on the networks.
I think I posted my first angry message and tweet about being a responsible community soon after getting this information. I knew the hand writing was on the wall, and we would not be able to stop what was coming, but maybe we could convince them we were not all thieves and cut throats.
Moving along, December marked a low point for me. The information started to firm up, and I was able to verify it through multiple channels. This information made the previous information look like a day in the park. So what was new?
1. Multiple carriers were working collaboratively on a program that would be able to identify rooted users and create a database of their meids.
2. Manufacturers who supply Verizon were baking into the roms new security features:
a. one security feature would identify any phone using a tether program to circumvent paying for tethering services. (check your gingerbread DroidX/Droid2 people and try wireless tether)
b. a second security feature would allow the phone to identify itself to the network if rooted.
c. security item number 2 would be used to track, throttle, even possibly restrict full data usage of these rooted phones.
The Rubber Meets the Road
So, I wish I had more time to have added this to the original post, but writing something like this takes a lot of time and effort to put all the information into context and provide some form of linear progression.
Lets get on with the story. March of this year was a monumental month for me. The information was unsettling and I felt as if we had a gigantic bulls-eye on our backs.
This is what I have heard:
1. The way that they were able to track rooted users is based on pushing updates to phones, and then tracking which meid's did not take the update. There is more to it than this but that is the simple version.
2. More than one major carrier besides Verizon has implemented this program and that all carriers involved had begun tracking rooted phones. All carriers involved were more than pleased with the accuracy of the program.
1. What I was not told is what the carriers intended to do with this information.
3. In new builds the tracking would be built into the firmware and that if a person removed the tracking from the firmware then the phone would not be verified on the network (i.e. your phone could not make phone calls or access data).
4. Google is working with carriers and manufacturers to secure phones, and although Google is not working to end hacking, it is working to secure the kernel so that no future applications can maliciously use exploits to steal end-user information. But in order to gain this level of security this may mean limited chances to root the device. (This item I've been told but not yet able to verify through multiple sources – so take it for what you want)
5. Verizon has successfully used its new programs to throttle data on test devices in accordance with the guidelines of the program.
6. The push is to lock down the devices as tight as can be, but also offer un-lockable devices (Think Nexus S).
The question I've asked is why? Why do all this; why go through so much trouble. The answer I get is a very logical one and one I understand even if I don't like it. It is about the money. With LTE arriving and the higher charges for data and tethering, carriers feel they must bottle up the ability of users to root their device and access this data, circumventing the expensive tethering charges.
What I would like to leave you with is that this is not an initiative unique to Verizon or Motorola, this is industry wide and encompassing many manufacturers.
So what does all this mean? You will need to make your own conjectures about what to think of all of this. But, I think that the rooting, hacking, and modding community - as we know it - is living on borrowed time.
In the final analysis of all this I guess I'll leave you with my feelings:
I will take what comes and turn it into a better brighter day, that is all I can do because I do not control the world.
Disclaimers:
I am intentionally not including any names of sources as they do not want to lose their jobs.
This information is being presented to you as I have received and verified it. *
I only deal with information pertaining to US carriers and have no specific knowledge concerning foreign carriers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thoughts? Is there a future for Rooting?
Related
Since I own a Motorola Defy I feel this board is my home but if the moderators feel this post needs to be moved to another board then please do by any means.
As some of you may be aware of I've been posting my frustrations of late Froyo update from Motorola in this thread. You might not care how late and why they are late with the updates but I do because I rely on the updates to do more with my smartphone.
You may have already read that virtually there isn't any major change between Anroid 2.2 and 2.3 other than security fixes. Hello? Did you just say the majority of changes in the operating system are about security fixes? Why then the manufacturer of my handset is not ensuring my handset is safe to use then? I will try to answer this question shortly.
I don't use a smartphone for a hobby. I truly, like most of you, use my smartphone for productivity. Checking emails on the road, taking notes, instant satellite navigations, web browsing, occasional shopping, music, to read books, and document editing on the go are few to name. To do all those tasks I need to rely on a reliable network service, hardware, and the operating system that enables me to have all those software applications I need. This post is not about network services nor about hardware but I just like to say Motorola Defy has been a good phone, hardware wise, and indeed it should be able to handle Gingerbread if the 512MB RAM is not a limitation.
There are a lot of debates about mobile closed and open operating systems such as iOS and Android respectively on the internet. I'm beginning to see closed operating systems like iOS, WP, RIM, and WebOS are in fact a better choice unlike what open OS proponents have been trying to make us to believe. Ok, lets first see why Android is for free. But before that let me remind you Android is not open-sourced and in fact Google recently made it clear they are not going to let anyone see the source codes, let alone to use them (recompile). They are very public about freebies but not so public about the small prints.
Everything Google does is calculated either for a short strategy or for a long one. That is not for me to say if that is a good thing or bad. My concern is having options in the future not only for myself but also for the next generations such as your children.
Android has been given freely to handset manufacturers to build smartphones. To realise the magnitude of business opportunities Android brought to them you only need to look at the once king of mobile maker Nokia where they are today. Their out-dated Symbian OS alone did all the damage. Google is giving away Android for free to control the market in relation to their services. Dependability has always been the key factor of Google's success for as long as I remember. Google may one day even give away free handsets if that fits with their long term strategy.
At first it might appear to you Google can control the handset manufacturers since they are giving them huge business opportunities. That is far from the reality. Manufacturers also know, like most of us, why Google is giving away their OS for free and have already turned the table to their own advantage. Google recently signed an agreement with their major partners to ensure Android updates are delivered to us consumers quicker. The consumers who are vast in numbers and pay for everything are the losers in the battle of controlling the market by businesses.
In my opinion, Google has been hiding more security issues in Android than we are made to believe. They have recently covered up a serious security issue and never explained publicly how they managed to fix that other than explaining something was fixed on their server-side. I believe the problems are serious enough and if it is revealed Google’s reputation will be damaged. I have no proof as I don’t have access to Google internal documents. Admitting to Gmail security preaches that happened months ago today (3 June, 2011) is another hint that Google is not open about their security issues. Please remember, unlike your Windows machines Android does not have a built-in firewall or antivirus.
Back to the question that I asked earlier, why then the manufacturer of my handset is not ensuring my handset is safe to use then? They simply don’t want you to have the latest Android version on your handset because of their Business Model. New Android version goes on to their new handsets, at least initially. There are cases where a particular handset from a manufacturer gets all the updates. The reason behind this is that the handset in question has returned its expected profits or the handset considered as a flagship that most likely continues its pedigree. Examples of these are Samsung’s Galaxy S, Sony Ericson’s Xperia, Motorola’s Droid X. Providing updates to older flagship handsets is to keep existing customers loyal. I don’t see anything bad in this one.
I really see the advantage apple users get for not being dependent on manufacturers to get updates. The same goes to all so called closed Mobile OS. As much as it was heart breaking to hear about the Chinese boy who sold his kidney to buy iPad 2, I’m glad he didn’t buy an Android device otherwise he would have to sell something else for the software updates alone.
I already know my next phone is going to be an Android device but I will keep my eyes on the promised improvements in regards to the updates delivery and if nothing is changed then I will take my business to another company where I know I have to wait weeks not months for updates and if there is a critical security issue I don’t have to pull my battery and SIM card to protect my data.
Hi
I'm pretty sure this hasn't been covered off already - well - not to the level of detail I need anyway.
I came to the xda forums after a friend of mine suggested that there were hacks available.
It's clear that 'something' is available, but what I am not finding is:
A) A SIMPLE guide that shows us people totally new to phone 'hacking' how to do it, from start to finish, with minimal lingo and acronyms.
B) An clear and simple explanation on the different 'hacking' options available
C) The reason you would want to do it? From what I can see, the only benefit seems to be a few pointless homebrew apps that you can download - and for the risk involved...why would you chance it?
Don't get me wrong, tinkering in itself is the reason you would want to do it - it's fun - but I can't help thinking that the WP7 side of 'hacking' doesn't offer much reward.
Would really appreciate any advice/help/links with my questions.
Thanks
Did not know whether to bother answering or not but okay. First welcome to XDA, uhhh in easy laymens terms hacking is not for the inexperienced and it is not totally idiot proof so you should have some fair knowledge of the systems and what they do. Don't hack if you need a kindergarten book to explain it all out for ya simple as that. WP is closer too iOS than Android main point being it is the most secure as far as I personally care of the 3, and the system is just as smooth and fluid as iOS. No there are not alot of Homebrew available at the moment, but if you happen to have a phone able to be fully unlocked then you have the option to use many functions that were not available before.
Device specific is where you should such that search block is your best friend, nobody here is going to write a full guide to the whole forum section for every single new hack and crack that comes out. If you want to you are more than welcome.
Thanks pal
I'm ok with the concepts of hacking, just not specifically this OS.
I'm technically minded and do a lot of similar stuff elsewhere, but when it comes to the phone that I use daily, and comntracted for another 12 months with and have no experience with tinkering WP7 - Im slightly more nervous.
I guess my main issue was the d&h forum for WP7. Every sticky/thread is far too long and they all contain a lot of acryonyms that a new WP7 hacker wouldn't understand. So my forum instinct is to look for the sticky that says "start here - everything explained" - but there isn't one?!
It's almost like "where do people start if there is no starting point"?
As far as covering a good amount of info, this post is a good one:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1299134
Don't really think there is a way to avoid all the jargon though, if there is something that isn't explained well it should be simple to find information to fill in the gaps. The terms used are very specific to the environment, so anything returned in a search would probably be relevant.
The most common homebrew option is Interop Unlock, Samsung models of phone are the easiest to unlock. This allows you to use native code that has not been wrapped in a tidy c# class.
The benefit of all this is that your phone is a full fledged computer that by default is locked down like an appliance. Developing additional homebrew apps allow you to get further phone customization out of your device, and therefore the most value out of your purchase.
I for myself thought about unlocking my device considering the risks involve. but I weighed the consequences. Thus, I end up now, having a fully unlocked HTC 7 Mozart with a custom rom. I am happier with my device now, I can do BT transfers, explore the folders within my device, install more applications than the usual apps/games from the marketplace, and tweak my device. One more thing, when my device was still running on stock rom, battery life is shorter, now I have 1.5x the battery life.
MY CONCLUSION: unlock your device's potential
as for the guides, yes it is not really like spoon feeding, but contents of the guides/tutorials are somehow progressive. one can learn from them, so that on the next development, we can do the "hacking" easier since we understood how the process goes. This is why it is called development. Cheers!
before i can give you advice on what hack that you can use, what is the name your device that way there are more specific hacks that we can talk about.
Hi
Thanks for the helpful replies.
I have a HTC Trophy. I'm doing the SD card upgrade next week to start with, so I can finally put all my music on it, so thought i'd look at hacking it at the same time.
Cheers
Sent from my 7 Trophy using Board Express
look at the HTC part of this guide, http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1271963
lovenokia said:
look at the HTC part of this guide, http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1271963
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looks like a good guide but how am I meant to know if I have a first or second gen phone....there's no definitive list?! And I can't remember what updates I have.
This is a nightmare - I'll give it a miss
check your processor, as far as i know, if your phone has 1.5GHz then it's a gen2, otherwise, it's just gen1
Let me at least give the "legitimate" talk about unlocking your phone:
For $99/year, sign up for a developers account with Microsoft (create.msdn.com). You can unlock up to 3 separate devices officially for app development. Then you can build and deploy all kinds of .xaps to your phone. To top it off, you can get the betas and early OS upgrades (had Mango almost 6 months before my friend got it from his vendor). Ultimately, you can even release your own apps to the marketplace for sale or for free.
sounds like, since this is a phone you use every day, this might be an investment worth considering. Its an easy and legitimate way for someone not too experienced with the phone's innards to get it unlocked and get exposed to how things work. Plus if you back up your phone vefore you unlock it, and something goes wrong, you haven't done anything thats voided a warranty. If the OS crashes, try returning to the "pre-unlocked" backup and bring it back to the store saying it crashed. They'll replace it. Nice deal, considering most Windows phones run around $500 to replace.
Now as for unlocking it via other means: maybe you dont want to sell apps. Maybe you dont really want to give microsoft a credit card for $100 every year. Maybe you want to just do more than a developer unlock will get you - like load a whole new aspect of the operating system. Or maybe you just dont want to pay to unlock your phone. Understandable, i suppose (though for MOST people, a developer unlock is more than sufficient). There are options, but they will require a lot of time and investigation (maybe even translation) to get it right, because the WP7 is new. The devices are many - its not like having a single hardware baseline to crack - like the iPhone. And to throw another monkey in the wrench, they did a full-fledged update to the OS not 6 months ago. So - no - not a a lot of "beginners" guides out there. Even for experienced people, an unofficial unlock is still a tricky feat. Take a look at the number of posts that have to do with phones randomly "re-locking" themsleves. Hell, I'm a legit developer and my phone "re-locked" itself last night. (turns out MS has a "lease" on deve unlocks that you need to physically update every year by un-registering and re-registering the device)
hope this was informative and helps.
I found exactly the same problem. Today I saw this post in the HTC Titan forum which helped me understand all the different unlocks that you hear mentioned on the web.
Hope this helped
:laugh: Greetings GNEX Community!,
To make reading this post, less of a drudgery, I have organized it into sections with titles, as though it were medical notes, diagnosing a disease, but the real focus is on GETTING RESULTS!!
ULTIMATE GOAL (IDEALLY):
The Galaxy Nexus (SCH-i515, Toro/Tuna, aka, LTE) from Verizon has 3 pogo pins, which would make a landscape multimedia dock for desk or automobile, perfectly ergonomic, easier, less chance of physical damage to the phone connectors, and would allow many different possibilities in communication capabilities while docked.
CURRENT WORKAROUNDS (CRUTCHES):
While there are tons of people who have decided to simply modify the GSM 'official' version (shaving it down to fit better), or else modify the 'official' VZW version (buying pogo pins, and installing/soldering then in manually), there are also some folks who seem to be "OK" with how the VZW version sits in the official 'GSM' version of the car dock (with the volumn buttons partially pressed, causing some buggy behavior), for example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuuxD-Uqr2o&feature=player_embedded
PERFECT ANALOGY (CHARACTERIZATION):
We have a combustion engine, but VZW owns the "rights" to gasoline (yeah, more like, they 'own' the right politicians). So we are still pulling our carriage by horse. How stupid is that?
THE ROOT CAUSE (DIAGNOSIS):
VZW is just greedy, and at odds with Google, for instance:
http://links.pjr.bz/VZW-Sues-Google
http://links.pjr.bz/WIFI-Net-Neutrality
PROGNOSIS WITHOUT INTERVENTION:
Verizon --- and I think, by quietly submitting to VZW pressure, Samsung as well --- has utterly abandoned any further interest in supplying GNEX accessories (or even authorizing 3rd parties who would otherwise build and sell them). They don't want American's to have too much freedom, to modify and change the Operating System on their phone, etc., with an unlocked bootloader. They won't as much control as their partners will allow them to grab. But this tactic of selling us this phone, and then letting us hang out to dry, while the more locked down phones get all the attention, and the sadly deceived public flock to them, is just morally wrong (not merely bad business).
SUGGESTED TREATMENT:
If you are remotely interested, or would be willing to spend 5 whole minutes to fill out a petition, with a respected organization who WOULD NOT sale your PID (personally identifying information, such as email, phone ,etc), then HIT REPLY and say so. Speak up. Let me know.
REQUIRED PATIENT INVOLVEMENT:
If there is sufficient interest, I will begin the process to make our voices heard, in a more effective manner than simply whining and moaning in comments on YouTube and Forums, which will almost certainly never reach an ear on a person who can do something about it.
DISCLAIMER:
I am a new VZW customer (2-yr marriage, ugh), and new GNEX i515 owner. The situation that I've begun to research (the politics between VZW, Samsung, and Google) is so absolutely ridiculous. Google is the only entity who seems to really care about their customers.
Ok, 20,000 posts whining, complaining, etc., and nearly impossible to wade past all that crap to get to useful info regarding these issues. Yet, not one single response by someone willing to even take a few moments of their time to click a few buttons and add their name to a petition. What does this reflect upon the masses?
Contact Samsung on the phone. They should have them in stock. I got an email on Thursday or Friday saying that they are back in stock. I will order mine tomorrow if I can muster up the stones to spend 90 bucks on a dock...
For those who don't know WhisperYAFFS is the encrypted filesystem used by the WhisperCore Custom Rom. The Source Code was released but I have notice not much has been done to port it over to the GNex or JellyBean/ICS for that matter.
What I want to do is port WhisperYAFFS over to ICS/JB. Since whispersys was bought by twitter they have slowly been open-sourcing their old apps but Whispercore still has not surffaced. A lot of users (myself included) don't feel comfortable with Google's implementation of encryption on android (AES-128 Bit and only 16 Char password).
The main difficulty is getting WhisperYAFFS running under ICS/JB. Once that's done we need a GUI for password entry at boot (The original was never open-sourced) and a hardened kernel for protection against exploits (Like GrSecurity or FuguMod).
If anyone is working on this or wants to help please let me know either here or via PM. I have some work in progress but I need help to make this a reality.
WhisperYAFFS: https://github.com/WhisperSystems/WhisperYAFFS
I'll second that...
I completely agree. While I am not a developer, this is the sort of project I would be more than willing to put several hundred dollars into to spur development. I think it is vital that there be an effective whole-device-encryption scheme for the Android Kernel which is based on 256 AES (or better) and utilizes a user provided key at boot time which is completely sperate from the "unlocking" functions during normal use.
While not strictly part of any WhisperYAFFS project, I would also like to see of hardening security features in the OS as well. A system with true whole-device-encryption is of course at it's most secure state when powered off. While on, even locked, there is always the possibility to exploit weaknesses in the OS. To that end, security features which power down the device without warning become an effective way to thwart an adversary. This auto-power-off should happen after too many failed attempts to unlock it and there also needs be a "dead man's switch" that shuts the device down should the unit not be "unlocked" after a configurable period of time.
mckinleytabor said:
I completely agree. While I am not a developer, this is the sort of project I would be more than willing to put several hundred dollars into to spur development. I think it is vital that there be an effective whole-device-encryption scheme for the Android Kernel which is based on 256 AES (or better) and utilizes a user provided key at boot time which is completely sperate from the "unlocking" functions during normal use.
While not strictly part of any WhisperYAFFS project, I would also like to see of hardening security features in the OS as well. A system with true whole-device-encryption is of course at it's most secure state when powered off. While on, even locked, there is always the possibility to exploit weaknesses in the OS. To that end, security features which power down the device without warning become an effective way to thwart an adversary. This auto-power-off should happen after too many failed attempts to unlock it and there also needs be a "dead man's switch" that shuts the device down should the unit not be "unlocked" after a configurable period of time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is exactly what I want. I want 'x' number of wrong password to wipe/poweroff the device and a duress password. I have been working on a geofencing solution so if the phone leaves a set area it auto-powers down.
x942 said:
This is exactly what I want. I want 'x' number of wrong password to wipe/poweroff the device and a duress password. I have been working on a geofencing solution so if the phone leaves a set area it auto-powers down.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This would be a great feature i admit
THIS. IS. NEXUS.
Just Checking in...
I thought I would post another reply just to float this post back up to the top.
Does anyone have any new leads on promising projects that will implement a robust full-device-encrypt system on phones and tablets running JellyBean? (not the poorly implemented device encryption that started in ICS)
I was dead serious in my post about putting up a bounty for this. Is there a good clearing house for us un-programers to pony up collective cash to get something like this done?
Thanks.
This should be high priority
I can't believe google hasn't given this any attention and instead gave us a half-butted home directory/data semi-encryption that is vulnerable to being cracked by consumer obtainable fpga tech. When we finally do get someone like moxie working on real solutions, he disappears with a fat salary into corporate america, albeit twitter and they're kind of cool, but then all development stops and only pieces are release to the public.
I'm all for this. Wish I'd done development in this area so I could jump right in. Hope this bumps the thread n someone with experience in this notices.
I know the corporate world is begging for this and wont let us use android for a lot of stuff as a result. So this could gain some real notice for any devs participating.
Hope for WhisperCore
I came across a Tweet from Moxie Marlinspike that seems to indicate that he is restarting work on WhisperCore.
https://twitter.com/moxie/status/301948885398585346
Text: @x942_dev We're getting WhisperCore started again, are you interested in working on that as well?
dicknixondick said:
I can't believe google hasn't given this any attention and instead gave us a half-butted home directory/data semi-encryption that is vulnerable to being cracked by consumer obtainable fpga tech. When we finally do get someone like moxie working on real solutions, he disappears with a fat salary into corporate america, albeit twitter and they're kind of cool, but then all development stops and only pieces are release to the public.
I'm all for this. Wish I'd done development in this area so I could jump right in. Hope this bumps the thread n someone with experience in this notices.
I know the corporate world is begging for this and wont let us use android for a lot of stuff as a result. So this could gain some real notice for any devs participating.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The encryption is actually fine by all means. The only issue really is that it doesn't encrypt the whole phone or use 256bit (not huge as 128 bit is technically enough but why settle for less?).
mckinleytabor said:
I came across a Tweet from Moxie Marlinspike that seems to indicate that he is restarting work on WhisperCore.
https://twitter.com/moxie/status/301948885398585346
Text: @x942_dev We're getting WhisperCore started again, are you interested in working on that as well?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes he did tweet but I have yet to hear any more from him... My project is going to be out soon. It's hasn't fixed encryption yet but it does address the issue of exploits by hardening the kernel with GRSecurity and adding in some other stuff.
People, I just returned to the Samsung "fold" after a hiatus of several years. It's a Note 10+ 5G, with T-Mobile. While the improvement from my previous LG (AT&T) phone and experience is absolute (T-Mobile has turned out to be a wonderful surprise), what I was really hoping for was, among other things, the flexibility of rooting which I had with all of my previous Samsung phones. In fact, I had come to almost rely on rooting for some very simple reasons: to keep Google, Samsung and whatever other providers of hardware and software from becoming my life's "partners" within my phone! A simple example is Google's need to know my bodily functions, my contacts and my schedule even though all of that is well handled by other, non-Google systems. If I choose not to share my life with Google, the phone continues to function as required. But it (and Samsung, for that matter) keeps trying. I am reasonably proficient with ADB and use the work arounds with some success but it is annoying. Again, I am not out to subvert any system; I simply don't want to share my life with the hardware and software providers, at least, no more than is needed. My phone is unlocked. Is there any hope of getting root for the non-exynos version of this phone?
EBRJR said:
People, I just returned to the Samsung "fold" after a hiatus of several years. It's a Note 10+ 5G, with T-Mobile. While the improvement from my previous LG (AT&T) phone and experience is absolute (T-Mobile has turned out to be a wonderful surprise), what I was really hoping for was, among other things, the flexibility of rooting which I had with all of my previous Samsung phones. In fact, I had come to almost rely on rooting for some very simple reasons: to keep Google, Samsung and whatever other providers of hardware and software from becoming my life's "partners" within my phone! A simple example is Google's need to know my bodily functions, my contacts and my schedule even though all of that is well handled by other, non-Google systems. If I choose not to share my life with Google, the phone continues to function as required. But it (and Samsung, for that matter) keeps trying. I am reasonably proficient with ADB and use the work arounds with some success but it is annoying. Again, I am not out to subvert any system; I simply don't want to share my life with the hardware and software providers, at least, no more than is needed. My phone is unlocked. Is there any hope of getting root for the non-exynos version of this phone?
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Taking the time you look on the forum would have answered your question. One thread in particular has a pretty active discussion (including from one rather knowledgeable person).
The summary of the whole "if this phone will have root" is basically this.. Samsung got it's act together with this phone. Will root be possible... Someday maybe, but not anytime soon.
scottusa2008 said:
Taking the time you look on the forum would have answered your question. One thread in particular has a pretty active discussion (including from one rather knowledgeable person).
The summary of the whole "if this phone will have root" is basically this.. Samsung got it's act together with this phone. Will root be possible... Someday maybe, but not anytime soon.
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I appreciate the admonishment about "taking the time" and I actually considered that I had. Unfortunately, my limited reading here and elsewhere resulted in the same conclusion that you reached, minus the aspirational portion! I guess I was hoping that, indeed, my reviews were truly insufficient and missing some obvious and positive answer.
Well, I got my answer! Much appreciated.